Taking Charge

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

TAKING CHARGE

Mark 14:53-65

53 They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders and teachers of the law came together. 54 Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. 55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. 56 Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. 57 Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: 58 "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another, not made by man.'" 59 Yet even then their testimony did not agree. 60 Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 61 But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" 62 "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."  63 The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked. 64 "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" They all condemned him as worthy of death. 65 Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him.

NIV

And so it begins. One false witness after another and none of their testimonies agreed with each other. That is how it is when men lie, there is no agreement among lies for they are not based on the truth and therefore each falsehood is alone. Lies cannot stand up against the truth. So Mark tells us that nothing said by any supposed witness was evidence the high priest needed to convict Jesus of blasphemy and thus condemn him to death. Jesus did not bother to refute those false testimonies, he remained silent throughout all their lies about him. It is interesting how even this witness about what Jesus said about the temple was close to the truth, but not exactly the truth. Mark does not record these words of Jesus, however, John does. Jesus said to the Jews when they wanted a sign of his authority, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days”. What is most interesting is the Greek word that was translated as raise. This word does not mean to rebuild, but rather to rise, to awaken, to rouse from sleep or from disease or death. So they quoted him absolutely incorrectly, only hearing what they wanted to hear rather than the truth. Isn’t this the case with many people, perhaps even ourselves? There may be times even when we ask a question, we only hear the answer we think we want to hear, rather than the actual answer, or rather we have some predetermined answer we want to hear. Nevertheless, after all the witnesses and still, no evidence was right enough to convict Jesus, the high priest finally just comes right out and asks Jesus if he is the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One. Finally, a question that Jesus can answer is truth. “I am”. That is all he needed to say, but he when on and told them the rest of his story. They could not handle the truth, they did not want to handle the truth. They only wanted to find a way to kill him, and his words did just that. Again, Jesus was not the victim here, although it seems as though he is standing trial before men. But the trial of men, with the testimony of men, fell way short of evidence to have him killed. So it was His words. He made sure man would accomplish the will of God. He was in control of the situation and made sure they had the evidence they needed to do that which he was sent to do. This was His plan, not theirs, they were merely supporting actors in with Jesus having the lead role in the accomplishment of the will of God. They appeared to be in control even as the high priest tore his garments in a show of righteousness in the face of, what they thought was blasphemy. It is interesting at times we might think we have control of our lives, making choices based on what we think is right, but only God is the source of what is right and we need to remember that He is the one who holds us in the palm of his hand, and He is the one who directs our lives, who calls us to himself and has a plan for each one of us. Should we not always look to the “I AM” instead of ourselves? We do, for our salvation, that is a given, but do we look to Him for all the aspects of our life? Jesus is the source of all things in our life. He should have the lead role and we simply need to live out the supporting role, letting him that the lead and taking charge, as he did here in his trial.